Mhudi: An Epic of South African Native Life a Hundred Years Ago is a South African novel by Sol Plaatje first published in 1930, and the first novel by a Black African published in English. The novel was republished many times subsequently, including in the influential Heinemann African Writers Series.
The novel is a political historical novel which explores the development of the Traansval kingdom, led by Matabeleland.[1] The novel was originally finished in 1920, but Plaatje was unable to get the novel published.[2] The novel re-invisions the standard Euro-centric narrative of history, which supported Apartheid and its racist infrastructure.[2]
Plaatje described the novel as a romance, comparing it to Zulu novels of H. Rider Haggard.[1]
Further reading
- Johnson, David (1 December 1994). "Literature for the rainbow nation: The case of sol Plaatje's Mhudi". Journal of Literary Studies. 10 (3–4): 345–358. doi:10.1080/02564719408530088. ISSN 0256-4718.
- Chrisman, Laura (2000). "Complex Relations: African Nationalism, Imperialism, and Form in Mhudi". Rereading the Imperial Romance: British Imperialism and South African Resistance in Haggard, Schreiner, and Plaatje. Oxford Scholarship Online. pp. 187–208. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122999.003.0009. ISBN 9780198122999.
References
See also
- Guanya Pau: A Story of an African Princess 1891 Liberian English language novel